336 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



especially as it is nearer home. One or the other I will probably 

 undertake." 



At the close of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 

 October, 1876, the success that had crowned the splendid efforts 

 of the public-spirited citizens of that city led to further efforts on 

 their part to organize a memorial that should be a permanent 

 exhibition, a special feature of which was to be the Educational 

 Department. Cope was made chief of the division of organic 

 material and did much in the preliminary work of organization 

 of what is now the Pennsylvania Museum in Fairmount Park. 



The loss of the greater part of his private fortune led Cope to 

 consider the desirability of increasing his income, by some ap- 

 pointment worthy of his ability. It was doubtless on that account 

 that in a letter written to Dr. Persifor Frazer he says: 



"Some of my friends are exerting themselves to secure for me 

 the place to be shortly vacated by Langley in the Smithsonian. He 

 will in all probability become secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and the place of Assistant Secretary will be vacant. G. 

 Brown Goode will become director of the National Museum and 

 Chief of the U. S. Fish Commission, but some one will be necessary 

 to fill the other vacancy. The person must also be a naturalist, 

 since Langley the secretary, is a physicist." 



In 1889, he was called to the chair of geology and mineralogy 

 in the University of Pennsylvania, and in the actual charge of 

 this professorship he continued until his death although in 

 1895, the exact title of the chair was changed to that of "zoology 

 and comparative anatomy." 



Gill says of him in that capacity: 



"Such a man naturally awakened the interest of apt pupils, 

 and he was a facile and entertaining lecturer. From the stores 

 of a rich memory he could improvise a discourse on almost any 

 topic within the range of his varied studies. His views were so 

 much in advance of those in any text-book that for his own con- 

 venience, no less than for the benefit of his pupils, he felt compelled 

 to prepare a 'syllabus of lectures on geology and paleontology/ 

 but only 'Part III, Paleontology of the Vertebrata' was published. 



